Forget U.S., Petrobras Turning To Asia, Europe For MoneyBrazilian oil giant Petrobras needs foreign financing, but it won't be going to U.S. banks to get it. Although the company is not in any need of cash this year, the struggling oil firm is always on the look out for financing and has some $13 billion it's looking to capture this year. Not a dime, supposedly, will be in greenbacks.

Spain approves permanent US military baseThe Spanish government approved an agreement Friday to host a permanent military presence of the U.S.'s Africa Command (AFRICOM) in the southern province of Seville, Spanish officials said.

What many fail to know is that the West Indian Ocean is not the world's most dangerous seas. In 2014, the United Nations declared Southeast Asia seas as perilous. Piracy has always been endemic in Southeast Asia and it is showing no sign of abating.

Playing with the Fire of TerrorismBy pandering to Saudi Arabia and the Sunni-controlled Gulf states, the U.S. government is playing with fire, allowing the spread of Sunni radicalism to destabilize targeted governments like Syria but unable to control the resulting terrorism.

Take The "A" Train…or not: New York subway hit by metals theftNew York subway riders trying to take jazz musician Billy Strayhorn's advice and travel on the "A" train into Manhattan ran into a snag this week. Services along the whole 31-mile length of the "A" train route were disrupted May 27 by what the Metropolitan Transit Authority described as a "massive theft of copper cable" from subway line tracks near Howard Beach, Queens.

At least for now, chickens, turkeys and other fowl are the only direct targets of the avian flu outbreak that has spread across the U.S. Yet scientists say there is a subtype of the virus that may have the potential to become a human pandemic.

Asia needs too many roads, railways and power plantsAsia's infrastructure needs are overwhelming. Governments and multilateral public lenders can only provide the money for a fraction of the ports, roads, railways and other pieces of society that much of Asia needs to grow and develop.
These countries have missed the boat. With the era of cheap energy coming to an end and industrial civilization already on the decline, they will never be able to build all the industrial-society infrastructure that they want. -- RF

Japan's push to secure African resources sputters, helping ChinaA Japanese government drive to secure access to resources in Africa has sputtered as some companies shy away from investing due to slumping commodity prices and worries over political stability, helping China as it races to import raw materials from the continent.

Clinton Award Under ScrutinyBill Clinton agreed to accept a lifetime achievement award only after Petra Nemcova, the event organizer, offered a $500,000 contribution to the Clinton Foundation, the New York Times reports.